19 Feb 2012

Anfield legend Graeme Souness is the latest ex-player to have his say on the Luis Suarez-Patrice Evra handshake issue, and the former Liverpool manager believes that Kenny Dalglish was 'compromised and embarrassed' by his ill-advised blanket support for Suarez.

In his weekly column for the Daily Star, Souness argued that Dalglish was 'let down big style' by Suarez in a 'classic case' of a manager offering too much unquestioning support for a star player.

Souness - who took over from Dalglish as Liverpool manager in 1991 - also seemed to suggest that his former teammate may have had no choice but to offer total support. He observed:

"The problem these days is that, as a fotball manager, you can’t fall out with top players because they have become so powerful through the money they earn. If you do, you might alienate other players in the dressing room and the problem becomes even greater".

I wonder how the rest of Liverpool's players would've reacted if Dalglish had taken a harder line with Suarez; would they have been 'alienated' as Souness suggests?

Liverpool's pig-headed response to everything to do with the Suarez-Evra situation invoked intense criticism from all sides, culminating in an unprecedented display of (forced) contrition from Dalglish and Suarez.

Souness admits that Liverpool got lots of things wrong during the Suarez-Evra fiasco, but insists that Dalglish was only ever guilty of being too loyal:

"What Kenny was guilty of was being too loyal. Apologies have been issued since from Liverpool, who have to hold up their hands to being wrong on so many levels during this issue".

I wonder how Souness would've dealt with the Suarez-Evra situation? I have a feeling he would've take a much harder stance on the issue, and I'm pretty sure he never would've sanctioned the tacky T-shirt episode.

Liverpool will be hoping to put the whole situation behind them today with a victory over Brighton in the FA Cup, which will surely do wonders for confidence and morale.

The rot was starting before he even took over the club. The club barely did anything good to refresh the squad with younger players before Souness, left Souness with a ageing squad as plenty were in 30s, a la Chelsea these days. Dalglish wasn't the same after Hillsborough. Signed cack like Speedie, Carter, etc, before Souness came in. The Dalglish team wasn't going to last forever.

The squad still had quality but it needed freshing too, to keep the squad evolving. Souness got carried away, went over the top, making wholesale changes. Souness made a mess of things as he did the changes far too drastically and quickly. That Beardsley transfer was the worse of the lot (him and Cole were brilliant at Newcastle), along with Houghton. He made some awful mistakes but in my opinion, the rot started before he came in...he accelerated the rot

souness, ho to ruin liverpool in 12 months!!! like fergie, bit of a hypocrite, he did start a riot when he put the Galatasaray flag and planted it in the centre of the Fenerbahce pitch. now he takes the higher road, sorry, no comparison and a load of bollocks!

well he gets paid to write shit! The man who sold the likes of legendary beardsley and broke records on men like Stewart!

Kenny and LFC were politically out manevered by the hypocrite Fergie. Thats the only thing Kenny is guilty of. The scandal is that this affair has allowed to overshadow poor purchases and sometimes poor tactics.

When are you going to give this story the flick? Enough Jaimie we are all sick of this whole episode but you just won't seem to let go of it. Have u got an agenda here we don't know about. For christs sakes let it be it's over apologies have been made its over. Have had enough of this whole saga

Redbaron - As long as ex-players have an opinion on the issue, I will report on it. There's no statute of limitations on LFC-related issues; Lots of fans - including me - are interested in what ex-players have to say. if you've had enough, then don't read the articles!

It was actually the most fair minded piece I've read from a lfc based site. I'm a Manc and I think it's all been a fiasco but only because lfc have made it that way because of the exact type of opinions that the biased fans on here have displayed. Why oh why can't lfc fans move on? Why are u never to blame? 19